Today Ms. Heaton let me know that I will be working with Quadrant Chambers for the first three weeks of the scholarship. She is still waiting to hear from the chambers where I might be placed for the second half of my trip. Rebecca, my co-scholar, will serve with Blackstone Chambers and Serle Court.
Ms. Heaton is also making arrangements for Rebecca and I to visit Edinburgh and Belfast over a weekend.
When I run into co-workers at the office, they often ask me to remind them when I am leaving for London and how long I will be away. I have also collected from them several questions that interest them about the English legal system. Among them are:
Are English lawyers compensated as well as American lawyers?
Who decides how many judges are needed, and how are they appointed?
Are there administrative courts?
How do the courts manage their caseloads?
How is entry to the profession of barrister limited?
Is it easy to choose law as a second career?
Are appellate standards of review similar to the standards used in the federal courts of appeal?
How do barristers manage their fees?
Additionally, because I have been interested in oral argument practices in the U.S. Courts of Appeals, I am similarly curious to know how cases proceed to oral argument in the English system, and the extent to which the role of oral argument is different there than here.
1 comment:
1. Absolutely not. UK lawyers can't take a slice of the damages, for starters.
2. The government decides and appoints - the Department of Constitutional Affairs, which is a part of the executive branch of government. To be fair, it is a bit more complicated than that and there are supposed to be Chinese walls etc. And there is some sort of judicial appointments board.
3. Yes, now consolidated into the Tribunals Service. There is also the Administrative Division of the High Court, which you mention in your court structure post. This handles judicial review challenges to the executive.
4. Not very well or at all. Although the higher courts (High Court, Court of Appeal, House of Lords) do have some very effective behind the scenes lawyers who group and manage test cases and the like.
5. By whether you have enough money to get through it. See relatively recent legal blogosphere for comments regarding entry to the profession.
6. Not really, but there some very successful barristers who follow this route.
7. No idea what you are talking about, I'm afraid. The test for errors of law is a very interesting and developing subject if that is what you mean, though. See, for example, R (Iran) v SSHD (link below)
8. Through their clerks. See John Flood's 1983 book, available on his website.
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2005/982.html
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